How to Surrender/Re-Home Your Dog
If you've done everything you can to try and hang onto your dog, but have come to the realization you have no choice but to re-home or surrender them, follow these steps to give your pup the best chance of staying safe and finding a great new home:
1) Ask close family members and friends
If a close family member or good friend with good dog parenting skills can take your dog, this is optimal for everyone involved. You and the dog get to stay in each other's life, and the dog gets to go to a quality home. However, do NOT give your dog to a friend or rescue without proper experience or pet ownership knowledge, or someone you don't know extremely well and trust with your dog's well-being. This can lead to hard feelings between yourself and the family member/friend and can be unhealthy for the dog.
2) Prepare a bio and adoption pack for your dog
If no family or friends can take your dog, prepare a bio and adoption pack to help in the search for a new, good home for your pup. This should include images of your dog, his up-to-date veterinary records and vaccine certificates, a list of the foods he eats and any medications he takes, his Breed Registration papers (if he has them), and other pertinent information for a new owner (his approximate birthday if you don't have papers, any training he's had, any bad habits he has, any allergies or other sensitivities he has, any medical issues or injuries he has, etc.). It is SUPER IMPORTANT that you are honest with all this information. Not only is it in the best interest of the dog in helping him find the perfect new home, but it can save you a lot of future trouble with people who may not appreciate getting a dog that is not the dog you told them it was.
3) Check with the original breeder or rescue
If you got your dog from a breeder or a rescue, check with them first to see if they will take your dog back or can help you find your pup a good new home. Good breeders have a lifetime return policy on their dogs and will often take them back themselves or work to help find them a good new home, and most rescues stipulate in their original adoption contracts that you must return the pup to them if you find that you can no longer keep the dog yourself. If they agree to help you rehome the dog, send them your dog's bio and adoption pack for reference.
4) Check with your local Shelter
Call your local shelter and tell them you must rehome your dog and ask if they can help you find potential adopters. They will often have a list of organizations that can help you network the dog (like a "Pets" section of a local online publication) and may sometimes do a "courtesy post" to their networks to make other people aware your dog is up for adoption. If they agree to help you rehome the dog, send them your dog's bio and adoption pack for reference.
5) Reach out to local Breed and Dog Clubs
If your dog is a purebred or is a dog that is good for certain type of work (for example, he is a Husky mix that loves to pull), check with Breeders, Breed Clubs, and Dog Clubs in your area to see if they know anyone that would like to adopt your dog. They can also do courtesy posts. If they agree to help, send them your dog's bio and adoption pack for reference.
6) Try to rehome your dog on your own
If the person/organization you adopted your pet from can't take them back, try to rehome your pup on your own. Start by asking every family member and friend you know to help you look for a good home for your dog. Post your pet on social media, but only so friends can see it, and not the public. If you must post your pet to the general public to find a home, post on PetFinder.com and other pet rehoming sites that require a re-homing fee. NEVER give your dog away for free, and do NOT post your dog for free on public social media or in public marketplaces like Craig's List. Keep your pup and care well for it while you are looking for its new home.
IMPORTANT NOTE: When you are rehoming your dog on your own, make sure you:
- NEVER give your dog away for free. ALWAYS ask for a rehoming fee of at least $250 or $300 to weed out dog flippers (people who will turn around and sell your dog for money right after you sell it to them) and dog fighting people, both of whom are masters at appearing like excellent would-be adopters.
- Ask for vet and personal references and be sure to CALL them. This helps you make sure a would-be adopter is someone who loves animals and dogs in particular, treats them well, and has been diligent about keeping their current or past dogs healthy by taking them for regular vet visits.
- Ask to see the place the dog will be kept, or if you can't go, ask a rescue to do a home check for you so you're sure your dog isn't going into a bad situation (like hoarding, dog fighting, bad living conditions, etc.)
- Ask prospect adopters about their dog experience and breed experience so your pup won't be given up again because the new adopters are not properly prepared.
7) Check with a Rescue
If you can't find a new home on your own, call a Rescue to see if they can take in your dog. Rescues are different from shelters. While shelters are community or public funded organizations who employ full-time workers and have purpose-built facilities, Rescues are almost always volunteer-run non-profits who use a network of private homes or private kennels to take in, foster, treat, and care for unwanted dogs.
Rescues pull most of their dogs from shelters, and they are usually good dogs who are scheduled to be euthanized (sadly, Rescues can't save them all). The VAST majority of rescues do not euthanize dogs they have in their care unless medically necessary. Rescues are often specific to a breed, but that is not always the case.
Keep in mind that every Rescue is a privately run organization staffed by non-paid volunteers. They tend to do rescue work off-hours, as most volunteers have full-time jobs separate from their time with the rescue, so be patient with them. Each rescue has its own rules, but in most cases, you will pay a rehoming fee to cover part of the costs of having to care for and feed your pup until a home is found.
Once you surrender your dog to a rescue, you generally will not be able to change your mind and get your dog back.
8) Last Resort: Surrender Your Dog to a Shelter
If you have exhausted ALL the above options and have exhausted ALL of the recommendations, we've provided about on how to keep a dog in your home, then you will have to surrender your dog to a shelter.
Bring your Dog's bio and adoption pack with you when you go to drop off your dog (pictures and history are especially important) and tell them as much as you can, as honestly as you can, about what type of family would be best. You will need to sign over ownership of the dog to them before you leave. Be prepared to accept the emotional toll surrendering your dog may have on you, your family, and on your dog. If you have a change of heart afterwards, you can apply to adopt your dog back (assuming your pup has not already been adopted or euthanized), but you will be treated like any other potential adopter and must go through the same screening and adoption process, including paying the adoption fee.
If euthanasia is a concern when you drop off your dog at the shelter, ask them how much time owner-surrendered dogs in the shelter are usually given on average before they are. If they are a "no kill" shelter, ask how they manage their operation and what they mean by "no kill". Sometimes, "no kill" means that certain dogs deemed "adoptable" are kept alive until they are adopted, but others deemed "not so adoptable" or "unadoptable" are euthanized or transferred to kill shelters. Technically, since the shelter is keeping "adoptable" dogs alive until they are adopted, they can claim to be a "no kill" shelter, but that does not mean that dogs taken there are not euthanized, nor does it guarantee your dog will make the "adoptable" list.
9) Don't "Free" Your Dog, or Abandon It
Dogs are domesticated animals and have been for tens of thousands of years. As such, they rely on people very heavily for healthy lives. They are not "little wolves" as some people think, and do not survive well when they are "free" to live on their own. Dogs left to fend for themselves outside often die painful deaths caused by the environment, injury from other dogs, animals or people, diseases, and poisons. Dogs, like people, can only go a few days without water before succumbing to organ failure and then death, so abandoning them alone in a house or vehicle is usually a death sentence.
Despite what some people think, a stranger is not likely to pick up a stray or abandoned dog and take care of dropping it off at the shelter, nor do most people who find a stray decide to keep it as their own pet. The reality is that most stray dogs live hard, dangerous, unhappy lives where food and water are very scarce. They get shot at, hit by cars, yelled at, and harassed, attacked by other dogs, people and animals. Most abandoned dogs become gravely ill or injured shortly after being dumped by their previous owners.
So, please do not be that person who dumps or abandons their dog. It is much more humane - and the right thing to do - to work hard to find them a new home. At the very least, get them to a rescue or shelter so they are given the chance to find the life they deserve.